Have I Mentioned How Much I Hate Quinoa?

I used to eat quinoa all the time. And this is before I was gluten free. I just thought it was a tastier option to rice. And healthy.

Then, one fateful dinner about four years ago, my boyfriend and I made quinoa. About twenty minutes later we were both writhing around the floor of our living room in complete gut-wrenching agony.

I’ve experimented with quinoa since then, both on accident and on purpose, all with the same result.

The latest experiment happened last night. I made a really nice dinner for my boyfriend and me.

Last night’s menu:

My take on the “African Delight” salad from Happy Herbivore Abroad: line a large pot with water and coconut oil, heat and add sweet or red onions with a bit of berbere spice (a mix of cayenne, paprika, fenugreek, cardamom, coriander, cumin, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, turmeric, and cloves), cook onions until translucent, add yams or sweet potatoes and cook until soft, add fresh ginger and kale and set to simmer.

Zucchini and summer squash fresh from the garden, cooked in olive oil with sweet onion, parsley and basil. Served over gluten free pasta with parmasean.

Paired with yummy white wine from Sicily.

Anyway, I digress. Dinner was good up until the sudden urge to puke my guts out. My boyfriend wasn’t feeling the effects yet, so we went through every spice, wondering what I was sensitive to. Finally we looked at the pasta box. There in the ingredient list was the culprit: quinoa.

My bf started feeling the effects about twenty minutes later and we both spent the next four hours in agony, trying to distract ourselves with Archer, The Daily Show, and The Colbert Report.

I’m feeling better today, but am going to be much, much more diligent about checking the ingredient list!

My husband had trouble with quinoa making him sick too but it was resolved through taking enzymes/probiotic (combo pill) prior to eating it. Now broccoli is our only challenge! It’s rough on our system unless it’s juiced. Ugh!

Yes!!! When my food is even cross contaminated with quinoa, I vomit violently for 2-8 hrs and have the worst diarrhea ever for 24 hours. Oh and intense joint aches. Glamorous, no? It’s torture. Absolute living hell. Seriously, my reaction gets more intense/long lasting each time. It’s frightening to witness, so I’m told. Other than being very lactose intolerant, I don’t have any other intense known sensitivities. I even got tested at an allergist, and I’m not technically allergic to it! They said it’s due to the high saponin coating, but it seems like a weak explanation for such an awful reaction.

It’s nice to know I’m not alone in this reaction! It’s so strange and the number of people who have adverse reactions to quinoa seems to be growing. Case in point, a couple weeks ago I asked my waitress if the gluten free bread had quinoa in it. Instead of the confused look I usually get (the “could you be any pickier?” look), she said, “Oh, you too? I can’t eat quinoa at all.”

I can’t believe it, I’m gluten-free and hate quinoa too. (Actually I’m only about 85% gluten-free.) I switched to gluten-free five years ago and eat rice, flax, all the usual stuff we eat. I even ate quinoa early on, and bought a large bag of it. Now no matter how I try to hide the taste with other ingredients and spices, I can’t get the disgusting flavor out of my system. I hate it! Fortunately there are plenty of good tasty alternatives. Great post!